Diving into Conservation Finance

In the second semester of my time at SIPA, I had the privilege to delve into the world of conservation finance as part of the SIRI Sustainable Investing Consulting Project coursework. Whilst my knowledge about conservation finance has certainly deepened over the last few weeks, the most significant lessons I’ve gleaned revolve around project management and stakeholder engagement.

Teaming up with three other students, our focus has been on supporting a non-profit organization to launch a green blue financing bond aimed at bolstering birds and biodiversity conservation efforts. The blended financing mechanism will go a long way in increasing investments for implementing and scaling nature-based solutions and bird conservation in the Americas. To ensure the long-term sustainability of the projects, our client has been exploring and assessing how they can involve different types of investors and funding sources. Additionally, they are keen to sharpen the thinking on ensuring the use of proceeds on their conservation priorities across projects in different sectors such as renewable energy, waste management and agriculture. Presently, our team is deeply engaged in collaborating with the client to identify optimal avenues for our contribution, leveraging the diverse expertise within both our teams and theirs.

Personally, my primary objective is to ensure that our efforts yield meaningful outcomes for our client’s initiative. This entails proactively seeking ways to provide concrete and practical analyses and recommendations early on. As we navigate the complexities of this project, I've come to appreciate the importance of flexibility and proactive communication in achieving alignment amidst various moving parts. Moreover, working alongside team members hailing from diverse backgrounds has been an enriching experience, broadening my perspective and fostering a deeper understanding of our project's intricacies.

Beyond the project, our team recently participated in a management consulting workshop organized by SIRI. I was initially skeptical that I would learn much as I used to be a management consultant before coming to SIPA. I was pleasantly surprised, however, that the workshop provided me with a platform for introspection of my past experiences and refinement of my consulting skill sets. The first session on setting up the team enabled our team to know each other better across various aspects, such as our strengths, communication styles and conflict resolution approaches. This is one exercise that I would certainly recommend every team to complete, particularly for long projects. Another session that I enjoyed greatly was the one on giving and receiving feedback. Feedback is a gift but not everyone knows how to give and receive feedback. This session was particularly helpful in shaping my thinking about providing feedback on my peers’ strengths, not merely as a form of recognition, but to encourage their further development of their unique strengths. Overall, I was especially impressed with the sincere and candid exchange among classmates. I struggle a lot with vulnerability and their sharing provided perspective that we oftentimes face similar challenges in our career and gave me confidence that we will emerge stronger from these challenges.

Looking forward to sharing more about my reflections on the project as the project progresses in the next blog post!